Asian-American voters are spurning Trump and the GOP, poll finds

Asian-American voters are siding strongly with Hillary Clinton in the presidential contest, as younger voters in particular abandon Donald Trump and the Republican Party, a new poll of those voters has found.

Clinton has a firm hold on 55 percent of Asian-American voters. When those leaning toward the candidates are counted, she leads Trump by 49 points, 70 percent-21 percent.

That puts her in striking distance of President Barack Obama’s standing in the 2012 election, when he won 73 percent of Asian-American voters, according to exit polls.

The results released Wednesday as part of the National Asian American Survey suggest that Trump’s rhetoric — especially on the topic of immigration — has caused an irreparable breach with those voters.

“All of the anti-immigrant rhetoric and harsh tone and language is a turnoff to voters,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a University of California, Riverside political science professor and associate dean of the School of Public Policy, who directed the survey.

In a twist, the gender and education demarcations seen in the national electorate this year were absent among Asian-Americans. A majority of both men and women sided with the Democratic nominee, as did almost 6 in 10 of both college-educated voters and those without college degrees.

Among white voters, Trump has regularly claimed the allegiance of men and those without a college degree; Clinton has won among women and the college-educated.

The findings among Asian-American voters are similar to results in surveys this year among Latino voters, who have sided with Clinton regardless of gender or educational experience.

“Race seems to trump the impact of other categories like gender and class,” Ramakrishnan said. “This is fairly clear evidence that we do not live in a post-racial society. … Other differences like education don’t matter as much for communities of color.”

As negative as Asian-American voters overall were toward the Republican nominee and his party, the views worsened among younger voters, suggesting a difficult path ahead regardless of the results of November’s election.

Fifty-two percent of voters overall had a “very unfavorable” view of Trump; among millennial voters that figure rose to 69 percent. Adding in voters with a “somewhat unfavorable” position resulted in 67 percent with a negative view of him. Among voters under age 35, that rose to 81 percent.

Clinton, by contrast, was seen in a “very unfavorable” light by only 18 percent of voters; 36 percent were either somewhat or very negative toward her. Almost 6 in 10 voters thought well of Clinton, compared to only 23 percent for Trump.

But it was voters’ views of Republicans that spelled the greatest long-term danger to a party whose base of older white voters is rapidly losing strength in the electorate. (Asian-American voters will make up 3 percent to 4 percent of November voters nationally, but their heft will be felt more acutely in contested states like Nevada and Virginia.)

Almost 6 in 10 Asian-American voters had a negative view of the Republican Party; fewer than 3 in 10 had a positive view. Those numbers were reversed when it came to the Democratic Party.

And, as with Trump, younger voters were more negatively disposed. Seven in 10 of voters under age 35 had an unfavorable view of the party, to 31 percent who had a negative view of the Democratic Party.

That alliance with Democrats — and against the Republicans — is telling because Asian-American voters have historically been more independent than other groups.

About 4 in 10 said in the new survey that they were independent, and another 4 in 10 said they were Democrats. Only 16 percent said they were Republicans.

But when those independents who lean to a particular party were considered, almost 6 in 10 were with the Democrats. Among younger voters, that figure rose to 7 in 10.